Southern writers' secret

Blessed are those who hear the word of God

I just finished a new nonfiction book, "The Mockingbird Next Door: Life With Harper Lee," by former journalist Marja Mills, who lived next door to Nelle Harper Lee and her sister, Alice, for 18 months in their hometown of Monroeville, Alabama. This was 2004-5.

It isn't a perfect book, but for "To Kill a Mockingbird" fans it's a must-read, because it sketches a more intimate picture of the famously reclusive Harper Lee -- or Nelle, as her friends know her -- than we've seen.

Already, there's been drama around Mills' book.

Legal correspondence signed by Harper Lee claims she never authorized Mills to write about her life. Mills' letter in response says this isn't true, that Lee and her sister, Alice, were well aware that she was planning to write a book about them. Mills also references a letter she received from Alice, who suggests that Nelle Harper isn't always aware of what she's signing. (You can read all these letters in an Entertainment Weekly blog.)

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It's sad stuff, particularly since Alice, now more than 100 years old, and Nelle Harper, in her late 80s, are living out their days in different assisted living centers in Alabama. The sisters, neither of whom ever married, were always incredibly close. Alice, an attorney, protected her younger sister from the endless onslaught of attention "To Kill a Mockingbird" brought them and their hometown, on which the novel's fictional Maycomb is based.

After reading Mills' book, I honestly believe the former journalist was straight-up about her intentions with the Lee sisters. She taped conversations, interviewed the sisters and their circle of intimates, inserted herself into their daily routine. Mills became friends with them. "The Mockingbird Next Door" is nothing if not respectful of Nelle Harper Lee's fierce desire to protect her private life. In fact, I'd go so far as to argue that Mills' book is a little too respectful.

There was one passage in the book that stopped me. It started as a back-and-forth between Mills and Lee and ended with an insightful observation about Southern writers. As a Northerner myself -- and a writer, at that -- it rang true.

Mills, a Chicagoan, confesses to Lee that she's surprised when public events in Monroeville begin with a Christian prayer. "I guess I'm just so used to thinking in terms of separation of church and state," Mills tells Lee.

Lee laughs heartily and replies: "Most people around here don't think in those terms."

Mills goes on to write:

"That connection to the Bible, Nelle pointed out, colors the work of great Southern writers. She maintained that the King James Version of the Bible is unsurpassed in its use of language."

And then Mills offers this:

Translator

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"How many of us," wrote Eudora Welty, "the South's writers-to-be of my generation, were blessed in one way or another, if not blessed alike, in not having been deprived of the King James Version of the Bible? Its cadence entered into our ears and our memories for good. The evidence, or the ghost of it, lingers in all our books: 'In the Beginning was the Word.'"